/bright-data-best-practices

name: bright-data-best-practices
description: "Build production-ready Bright Data integrations with best practices baked in. Reference documentation for developers using coding assistants (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.) to implement web scraping, search, browser automation, and structured data extraction. Covers Web Unlocker API, SERP API, Web Scraper API, and Browser API (Scraping Browser)."
user-invocable: false

CLI Setup Reference

Install, authentication, and troubleshooting for the Bright Data CLI (`bdata`) are documented in a single canonical place:

→ [`references/cli-setup.md`](references/cli-setup.md)

Consult it before any task that shells out to `bdata`.

Bright Data APIs

Bright Data provides infrastructure for web data extraction at scale. Four primary APIs cover different use cases — always pick the most specific tool for the job.

Choosing the Right API

| Use Case | API | Why | |----------|-----|-----| | Scrape any webpage by URL (no interaction) | Web Unlocker | HTTP-based, auto-bypasses bot detection, cheapest | | Google / Bing / Yandex search results | SERP API | Specialized for SERP extraction, returns structured data | | Structured data from Amazon, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, etc. | Web Scraper API | Pre-built scrapers, no parsing needed | | Click, scroll, fill forms, run JS, intercept XHR | Browser API | Full browser automation | | Puppeteer / Playwright / Selenium automation | Browser API | Connects via CDP/WebDriver | | Route your own HTTP client through a raw proxy (DC/ISP/Residential/Mobile) | Proxy networks | When you need direct proxy access with your own request logic instead of a managed API — see the `proxy.md` skill |

Authentication Pattern (All APIs)

All APIs share the same authentication model. The env vars below apply to direct REST API integrations — if you are using the `bdata` CLI, `bdata login` handles all of these automatically (see [`references/cli-setup.md`](references/cli-setup.md)).

export BRIGHTDATA_API_KEY="your-api-key"         # From Control Panel > Account Settings
export BRIGHTDATA_UNLOCKER_ZONE="zone-name"       # Web Unlocker zone name
export BRIGHTDATA_SERP_ZONE="serp-zone-name"      # SERP API zone name
export BROWSER_AUTH="brd-customer-ID-zone-NAME:PASSWORD"  # Browser API credentials

REST API authentication header for Web Unlocker and SERP API:

Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY

---

Web Unlocker API

HTTP-based scraping proxy. Best for simple page fetches without browser interaction.

**Endpoint:** `POST https://api.brightdata.com/request`

import requests

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.brightdata.com/request",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"},
    json={
        "zone": "YOUR_ZONE_NAME",
        "url": "https://example.com/product/123",
        "format": "raw"
    }
)
html = response.text

Key Parameters

| Parameter | Type | Description | |-----------|------|-------------| | `zone` | string | Zone name (required) | | `url` | string | Target URL with `http://` or `https://` (required) | | `format` | string | `"raw"` (HTML) or `"json"` (structured wrapper) (required) | | `method` | string | HTTP verb, default `"GET"` | | `country` | string | 2-letter ISO for geo-targeting (e.g., `"us"`, `"de"`) | | `data_format` | string | Transform: `"markdown"` or `"screenshot"` | | `async` | boolean | `true` for async mode |

Quick Patterns

# Get markdown (best for LLM input)
response = requests.post(
    "https://api.brightdata.com/request",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"},
    json={"zone": ZONE, "url": url, "format": "raw", "data_format": "markdown"}
)

# Geo-targeted request
json={"zone": ZONE, "url": url, "format": "raw", "country": "de"}

# Screenshot for debugging
json={"zone": ZONE, "url": url, "format": "raw", "data_format": "screenshot"}

# Async for bulk processing
json={"zone": ZONE, "url": url, "format": "raw", "async": True}

**Critical rule:** Never use Web Unlocker with Puppeteer, Playwright, Selenium, or anti-detect browsers. Use Browser API instead.

See **[references/web-unlocker.md](references/web-unlocker.md)** for complete reference including proxy interface, special headers, async flow, features, and billing.

---

SERP API

Structured search engine result extraction for Google, Bing, Yandex, DuckDuckGo.

**Endpoint:** `POST https://api.brightdata.com/request` (same as Web Unlocker)

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.brightdata.com/request",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"},
    json={
        "zone": "YOUR_SERP_ZONE",
        "url": "https://www.google.com/search?q=python+web+scraping&brd_json=1&gl=us&hl=en",
        "format": "raw"
    }
)
data = response.json()
for result in data.get("organic", []):
    print(result["rank"], result["title"], result["link"])

Essential Google URL Parameters

| Parameter | Description | Example | |-----------|-------------|---------| | `q` | Search query | `q=python+web+scraping` | | `brd_json` | Parsed JSON output | `brd_json=1` (always use for data pipelines) | | `gl` | Country for search | `gl=us` | | `hl` | Language | `hl=en` | | `start` | Pagination offset | `start=10` (page 2), `start=20` (page 3) | | `tbm` | Search type | `tbm=nws` (news), `tbm=isch` (images), `tbm=vid` (videos) | | `brd_mobile` | Device | `brd_mobile=1` (mobile), `brd_mobile=ios` | | `brd_browser` | Browser | `brd_browser=chrome` | | `brd_ai_overview` | Trigger AI Overview | `brd_ai_overview=2` | | `uule` | Encoded geo location | for precise location targeting |

**Note:** `num` parameter is **deprecated** as of September 2025. Use `start` for pagination.

Parsed JSON Response Structure

{
  "organic": [{"rank": 1, "global_rank": 1, "title": "...", "link": "...", "description": "..."}],
  "paid": [],
  "people_also_ask": [],
  "knowledge_graph": {},
  "related_searches": [],
  "general": {"results_cnt": 1240000000, "query": "